THE THOUGHT MODEL A HELPFUL MINDFULNESS TOOL THE

THE THOUGHT MODEL

A HELPFUL MINDFULNESS TOOL: THE THOUGHT MODEL • Based off CBT, and recently heavily promoted by Brooke Castillo of the Life Coach School and many other coaches • This technique allows you to recognize your thoughts and identify negative patterns within your thinking. You can then guide yourself to more productive and positive ways of thinking to produce the results you want in your life. • Through the practice of mindfulness meditation, you become a better observer of your thoughts

neutral fact Circumstan • A outside of your ce control Thought • Your mind’s interpretation of the neutral fact Feeling • The feelings your thought generates Actions • The actions your feelings result in Results • The results you are generating, wanted or unwanted

THOUGHT DOWNLOAD • Stream of consciousness writing of what you are thinking for 5 min (see handout) • Underline the circumstances and circle thoughts • Create thought models for your current thoughts • Identify new ways of thinking to create the feelings and results you desire in your life

REAL EXAMPLE FROM A CLIENT • I had such a rough day in clinic today. I informed a 29 year old that breast cancer had spread to multiple areas in her spine and at one level, there is a cord compression. After this conversation I can’t move on with my day. Feelings of despair were dominant. I can’t help but imagine what she must be thinking and feeling and how her kids and husband are going to be effected. I took this on, putting myself in her shoes and feeling sad. It also put me behind in clinic so the rest of the day I was struggling to catch up. I didn’t get my documentation done. I needed to stay late and missed out on time with my kids. No matter where I go or what I do I feel behind and like I can’t win.

EXAMPLE CONTINUED • From this she identified the thoughts: • • I can’t move on with my day I can’t help but imagine what she must be thinking and feeling No matter where I go or what I do, I feel behind I can’t win

THOUGHT MODELS • • • Current Model • • F: despair • R: stay late at work causing a snowball effect and missing time with family at home C: giving results of scan T: this is terrible news for this patient and I can’t move on with my day. A: dwelling on sadness, inability to concentrate, lack of charting • New model: • C giving results of scan • T even though this is bad news, my role as her oncologist is to be present for her now and offer support • F presence • A focus on the current moment’s emotions (not dwelling in the past), concentrating on now, being efficient with charting • R get out of work on time to see my own family no matter how my day is

HOW IS THIS MINDFULNESS? • Mindfulness teaches you to be an observer of your thoughts • You start to notice that your mind is constantly creating a stream of thoughts • You notice that you used to identify with these thoughts. These thoughts were you. You were one and the same with your thoughts. • But if you are your thoughts, how are you able to observe them?

YOU ARE MORE THAN YOUR THOUGHTS • You are the conscious observer of your thoughts • When you practice observing your thoughts, you are associating with your true self • The thought model allows you to recognize how your thought patterns are creating the current results in your life and change those for the better • By practicing mindfulness, you can more easily dissociate from the thoughts

MINDFULNESS AND FEELINGS • The other thing that mindfulness will help you with is feeling your feelings • The more you resist a feeling or try to buffer it away, the longer it lasts in the body • An average emotion lasts only 90 seconds in the body. By knowing this fact and practicing feeling your emotions, you can easily move through a lot of the negative emotions that are holding you back (there is a recording to help you practice this)

SUGGESTED USE • Keep a journal by your bed • Spend 5 minutes doing a thought download and then 5 minutes doing a thought model each night as you get in bed